


In Which Lady Une Searches for the Pilots

by WhiteWitchDark



Series: Sun, Sand, Sea and S... [1]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 12:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteWitchDark/pseuds/WhiteWitchDark
Summary: The Wars ended 10 years ago.  The Gundam Pilots disappeared into legend and obscurity, but Lady Une is determined to bring them to the Preventers





	In Which Lady Une Searches for the Pilots

**Author's Note:**

> Not Mine - Just Playing

The airport runway was lined with palm trees, rhododendron bushes and oddly shaped flowers. Heats shimmers distorted the reflective white lines, but Lady Une had been piloting since she was twelve years old and neither the odd floral arrangements, nor the glistening tarmac fazed her. Plus, it was too much like a twentieth century postcard for her not to roll her eyes at the kitchness. She simply couldn’t imagine the people she was searching for fitting in here, but this was the next best match.

The plane rolled to a stop. Lieutenant Dominic Richmond met her at the gates. She made him wait the extra few minutes while she stripped off her tights, changed into a short-sleeved Preventers’ blouse and put her hair up. She had no idea what the temperature of the Caribbean Island was, but it was a damn sight hotter then Sanq City.  
“Commander”.  
“Lieutenant, did you make contact?”  
The young man, barely out of his teens, hesitated once, then nodded, obviously a bit over-awed to be in the presence of the Supreme Commander of the Preventers, but hiding it well, “They fit, I mean, they match the profiles…”  
“But?”  
He sighed once and looked at the floors, “I… I just can’t figure out why you would be interested in them.”  
“Explain?” she snapped, leading the way out of the airport at a brisk walk. Richmond had to trot to catch up.  
“They seem like… well… like wasters, surfer bums. I mean the businesses keep their heads above water, even turn a profit every second year, but…”  
“Richmond, if they are who I think they are, then they have no money worries. Whatever jobs they have will be because they enjoy them.”  
“Who do you think they are?”  
She didn’t answer, just held out her hand for the car keys.

Their first stop was a waterfront bar called The Water Dragon. Ambient music was playing softly, but with two sides of the building open, the couple in the car could hear it quite clearly. A tanned, oriental looking man was sitting at the bar reading a paper, his back to them. Une’s trained eye could make out an odd shaped bulge in the back of the white shorts he wore, but the loose sky blue tank top meant she couldn’t be sure it was a gun. It might have been a dishcloth. There was no one else around. She looked at Richmond and raised an eyebrow. He cleared his throat, brushed loose brown bangs out of his face and said, “Three of the businesses are owned jointly by three of them, but employ the other two in some capacity. The last is a WEI branch managed by Kat Winner. Odin Lowe was transferred to the branch, for his health, a few years back. He does something in accounts. I’ve already checked Kat, short for Qatar, as in the place, is a distant relative of the L4 Winners, a descendant of one of the branches that didn’t move into space…”  
Une cleared her throat and nodded to the building beside them.   
Richmond flushed, “Right, The Water Dragon is owned by Fei Chang, Max ‘Duo’ Wells and Triton Bloom. It employs Kat Winner as the finance manager and Odin Lowe as Head of Security. To date, they have not received either a police complaint against them or had to call them themselves. They don’t seem to have a lot of trouble here, full stop.”  
“Interesting. Is that ‘Fei Chang’?”  
“Yes. He mainly runs the Harbour Gym and teaches Kung Fu and Tai Chi classes there. He’s very good. ”  
“You took a class?”  
“I have a black belt in Karate.” Richmond blushed, “It seemed like a good way of talking to him.”  
“Stay here.”

Une got out of the car and walked up the steps into the bar. She was still a few steps away from the counter when the man got up, ran a hand through loose, shoulder length black hair and meandered around behind the counter. His gaze would have been lazy, except onyx wasn’t a good shade for ‘lazy’ and just made him look bored, “What can I get you?”  
It was the local accent, but with an odd lilt that suggested it had been cultivated out of something else.   
“Water please.”  
He raised an eyebrow, “Still, sparkling or flavored?”  
“Sparkling.”

His movements, when he turned around, were both smooth and efficient, flowing easily and without hesitation; the mark of a highly trained martial artist, but there had been no sign of recognition in his eyes or face when he looked at her. ‘Fei Chang’ was a Kung Fu master. Everyone on the island already knew that. The name ‘Chang’ was the Chinese equivalent of ‘Smith’. There was nothing to suggest that he was also ‘Wufei Chang’, The Last Dragon, Pilot of Shenlong and Altron. Ten years was long enough to make a fifteen year old unrecognizable, but he shouldn’t have been that blase about her appearance. She’d even tied her hair up in buns and found her long lost glasses to help get an honest reaction. There hadn’t been one. She paid for her drink and left.  
“Where to next?”

Next was the dock yard, identifiable from the sounds of heavy machinery and smell of fish. ‘Bloom, Wells and Lowe, Boat Repairs’ was written in peeling green paint above the door. Une got out of the car and pushed open one of the doors. Music was playing, early twenty-first century rock by the sound of it. A black denim clad butt could be seen poking out from beneath a yacht and a black trainer absently kicked in time with the song. “I’ll be with ya in a minute.” Black was definitely Shinigami’s colour, and black cut-offs did seem in keeping with his attitude, but while the accent was American, it lacked the course, L2 twang. Une frowned.

The Butt moved backwards and a young man, covered in machine oil popped up. Ass-length hair was pulled back into an untidy plait that hung over a bare chest, but it wasn’t tied off and didn’t look like it was a serious attempt at a braid. “What can I do for you?” he asked brightly.  
“I was looking for someone.”  
He threw her a heart-stopping grin, “You didn’t fall for that old joke, did ya?”  
“Joke?” Richmond asked from behind her.  
“Shit, ya did.” He shook his head, “I was nicknamed ‘Duo’ after the pilot, on account of the hair.” He flicked it, “Mind you, I had dreads when I arrived, so it wasn’t as obvious. Anyway, became something of a local joke; that ‘Duo Max Wells’ works here. It’s funny sometimes, with the tourists, so I haven’t cut it.” He absently scratched his head, “First time I’ve had Preventers at the shop though. Is going too far if you lot are taking it seriously.”   
“I see, well, I’m sorry for wasting your time.” Une turned and walked out. Richmond followed her.

She climbed into the driver’s seat, but just sat there for a moment, tapping the steering wheel. Gut instinct told her that that was Duo Maxwell; the real one, Shinigami, but as with Fei Chang, the lack of a reaction to her appearance was just off-putting enough to make her unsure. If the pilots had genuinely tried to hide, surely they would have come up with better aliases.  
Richmond cleared his throat, “So we are looking for the Gundam Pilots.”  
Une grunted, “Keep it to yourself. Where next?”

The other end of the working harbour was the polar opposite of the yard they had just left; row upon row of shipping offices, warehouses and glass-fronted showrooms. The WEI office was at the end, a small affair, dealing mainly with the export of fish and locally produced rum to the mainland and import of clothing and foodstuffs to the island. Odin Lowe, who answered the door, proved to be a quiet young man with a shy smile and a nervous habit of dry-washing his hands. He had messy dark brown hair, lots of scars on his right side (from a boat accident he explained, which made him weary of working in the repair shop by himself) and was stammeringly apologetic to tell them that Kat Winner wouldn’t be back until later that afternoon and he didn’t know what he could do for them in the meantime. All in all, he was about as far from what Lady Une had expected of someone who fitted the profile of The Perfect Solider as one could get: Except for the knowledge that he was one of the regular bouncers at The Water Dragon and had been pigeon-holed as one of Kat Winner’s ‘heavies’ during the initial survey. 

Richmond gave the most obvious explanation after they left; pointing out that Lowe had only started behaving oddly after he had noticed the Preventer insignia. He wouldn’t be the first deserter to have washed up on these islands and Preventers did have the power to hand them over to the appropriate authorities for trial. Une gritted her teeth, half convinced they were the pilots and half convinced this was another wild-goose-chase.

The last place on their tour was the Harbour Gym, owned by Lowe, Chang and Winner. As they entered a man with the distinctive Winner blonde hair was coming out of the locker room, talking on a mobile phone. He was wearing grey linen trousers and a white linen shirt and carrying a sports bag. Aquamarine eyes met Une’s for a moment before she heard him say, “Never mind, they just walked in.” Then he ended the call and walked towards them, “Kat Winner. Oddie said you were looking for me earlier?”  
“Qatar Winner?” Une asked, doubt in her voice.  
“Yep, if you were expecting my illustrious cousin, I’m sorry to disappoint.”  
“Does it happen often?”  
He shrugged, “Often enough to have stopped fazing me.” He eyed the Preventers uniforms, “To be honest, it was a bit of a shock to the family. One minute we were just a small branch that most people didn’t even connect to the L4 Winners and then next thing Quatre’s picture is all over the news and everyone was commenting on how similar we looked. I had to explain the family’s obsession with genetic engineering six times a day for about three weeks. Everyone in the family has blonde hair and either grey or teal eyes.” He shrugged, “It was good for business though. Now were you looking for him or do you have business with me?”

Une sat in an expensive seafood restaurant that Kat Winner had recommended, staring at the menu and brooding. Richmond fidgeted behind his menu. Une suspected it was because he couldn’t figure out what half the options were, and then mentally pinched herself for thinking so negatively. 

Individually, all four of the stories she had heard held up. Even put together they still held up. The coincidence was astounding, but not impossible. Wufei Chang was not the only Kung Fu expert out there and truthfully, Fei Chang’s story about learning from his grandfather before going on a ’round the world trip was more plausible then a fifteen year old terrorist who got thrown out the airlock of his colony during a battle making it to Earth. Meeting Max Wells wasn’t even surprising, given the usual manner young adults traveled and how extroverted the American appeared to be. Them meeting Kat Winner and falling in with him was again, quite understandable, given they were the same age and this was a popular spot for backpackers. Odin Lowe could have been transferred to the island from another WEI branch ‘for his health’ just liked Winner claimed and would quickly have been assimilated into Winner’s little group of misfits. He had seemed a little stressed just talking to them. Winner’s story checked out and if it hadn’t been for Quatre Winner being a Winner, then no one would have looked at him twice. The only one they hadn’t spoken to was Triton Bloom who was apparently out on a fishing boat and wouldn’t be back until the end of the week. Everything held up. Everything was neat and tidy. It set Une’s teeth on edge. It was too similar to how the Gundam Pilots had functioned in the war. Triton Bloom was the key. Even after ten years, she would recognize Trowa Barton.

When the Missy Lou came in on Saturday morning, Une, Richmond and Richmond’s blonde partner, Lieutenant Andrea Michaels were waiting on the dock. Men scurried around on deck, doing Une had no idea what, tall, short, dressed in a variety of clothes and with a wide range of both colours and ethnicity. What she didn’t see was Triton Bloom or anyone who could be an adult Trowa Barton. 

The captain looked at her in surprise at her question.  
“Tri?” He eyed the uniform, “Not in trouble is he?”  
“No, not at all. We’re simply trying to confirm something and he could be an invaluable source of information.”  
The captain rubbed his chin, looked back at his boat and then sighed, “We dropped him off as we came round the bay. They usually jump there and swim in. Mad, the lot of them.”  
“What?”  
“They have a house around there. Didn’t you know? Like their privacy.”  
“I see.”  
“Not sure you rightly do, Commander.” He eyed her uniform again. “The five of them are good boys. Work hard, harder then most ‘round here and always come through on what they say they’ll do. Come out on the boats when they’re needed or when they can’t find the problem we’re complaining of. They can be odd, no getting away from it and there are stories ‘bout them and what they get up too, but no one here has any complaints ‘bout them. Won’t take well to Preventers causing them trouble here.”  
“If what I’m expecting is confirmed, Captain Rigby, then we won’t cause them any trouble. If it’s confirmed wrong, they will most likely never see me again.”  
The captain nodded and gave her directions to the house.

“… it make any difference?”  
Une’s ears perked up. Sneaking up on the house had been the right idea. The voice was older, more clearly baritone then she remembered, but the inflection in it was pure Trowa Barton. Once again she motioned her companions to silence and then settled down in the rhododendrons beside the house’s patio.  
“No. It’s a question of whether we want to.” Lowe, sounding a lot like Heero Yuy and not a stammer in hearing distance. The cheshire cat grin that spread across her face must have confused her subordinates.  
“I like this life, but I admit I miss the excitement. The chance to fight again would be tempting.”  
“Maybe for you ‘Fei, but the fighting never did it for me.”   
“But the illegal entry and EO did.”  
“Well… yeah, I guess.” A chair creaked as someone stood up.  
Maxwell was the uninterested one? She had thought he would be the easiest to convince. Shinigami had had quite a reputation.  
“If you don’t want to do it, Duo, then we won’t. All or nothing, right?”  
The others murmured agreement and Une could almost feel reality shifting and reformed around her. It had never occurred to her that they might refuse her offer. It had always been simply a case of finding them.  
The bush was abruptly pulled away and a camera flashed, catching her face in a moment of perfect shocked surprise. “Whatcha doing in there, Lady Une?”  
“I…Maxwell?”  
Max ‘Duo’ Wells grinned at her and it was a Shinigami grin. Ice gripped her spine and she could almost feel the shivers from Richmond and Michaels. He held out his hand to help her out of the bush. She took it.

And then she was on the patio, surrounded by the Gundam Pilots, looking and acting like themselves. Her companions stumbled out after her staring at the five young men in wide-eyed shock.   
Quatre Winner sat at the table, holding a green cocktail in one hand and a bunch of papers in the other, “Take a seat, Lady. If we’re going to do this, then these contracts will need a bit of revising.”  
Behind her Richmond spluttered at the hubris and Michaels jerked at the realization that Winner was holding a Preventer ‘Specialist’ contract (something that was not available to the public). Une just smiled and took the seat, the pilots would be an asset whether she could control them or not. She settled down to haggle with Winner, accepted a cocktail in a lurid pink colour from Barton and caught Michaels watching Maxwell’s ass out of the corner of her eye. Yuy was watching Michaels with a dangerous glint in his eye and Barton was watching Yuy with small smile on his face. Chang had already engaged Richmond in a discussion about MMA rules which she suspected would end in a match and somehow managed to get in between Michaels and Maxwell without moving to catch Yuy’s attention. Control them? Not a hope, but boy could she use them.

And how the hell had Maxwell got Yuy’s gun?


End file.
